On the other side of the park Claire Dearing stepped into the control room, a smug smile fixed firmly upon her pretty features. She had just secured a deal with a group of investors, who were more than interested in putting money towards the Indominus-Rex, and they were even more thrilled to find that their investment was already complete for public viewing – or at least it would be after the contractors finished building Paddock Eleven to Ellis Grant's incredibly high standards. Sat in their usual seats were Lowery Cruthers and Vivian Krill, both of whom turned to face Claire the moment she entered the room.
"What's the live count?" Claire asked, taking a sip from the takeaway coffee cup she'd brought in with her, her gaze fixated firmly on the large screen that covered the entire far wall of the control room.
"Twenty two thousand, two sixteen." Vivian replied almost immediately, having turned back to her computer screen to retrieve the information.
"…Any incidents?" Claire continued, directing this question towards Lowery who in turn brought up his own statistics on the screen in front of him.
"Yeah, six kids in the lost and found uh…twenty eight down with heatstroke-"
"Where did you get that?" Claire interrupted him, a frown causing her shaped eyebrows to knit together. Her blue eyes flickered towards the shirt Lowery was wearing. He followed her gaze and glanced down at the 1993 Jurassic Park logo emblazoned on his chest before looking up proudly, a smile flashing upon his features.
"Oh this? I got it on ebay…yeah it's pretty amazing. I got it for a hundred and fifty dollars but the mint condition one goes for three hundred." Opposite him Vivian rubbed her fingers against her temples in exasperation and Claire's frown never once faltered.
"It didn't occur to you maybe that's in poor taste? I mean aren't you dating the daughter of one of the survivors?" Lowery's thick eyebrows shot up his forehead and he opened and closed his mouth numerous times before actually speaking.
"This shirt? Yeah, no it did. I understand that people died and it was terrible but, that first park was legit. Y-you know I have a lot of respect for it they didn't need these genetic hybrids, t-they just needed dinosaurs. Real dinosaurs…"
"Okay." Claire stopped him there, holding up a finger to silence him. Lowery pouted.
"…and me and Ellis aren't dating." He added quietly, Claire cast him a sideways glance and shook her head.
"Whatever, please don't wear it again."
"Yeah…I wasn't gonna."
After a few torturous moments of awkward silence, Vivian glanced over her shoulder in Claire's direction and smiled brightly. "Did you close the deal?"
"Looks like it." Claire replied. "Verizon Wireless presents the Indominus Rex." Once again the name and corporation rolled effortlessly off Claire's tongue, she had certainly practiced it once or twice.
Lowery dropped his head to his desk with a groan. "Ugh that is so terrible." He murmured, a small smile played on Vivian's lips at his words but Claire merely frowned at him once again. "Why not just go the distance Claire and let these corporations name the dinosaurs, they've got all the ball parks why stop there?"
Ignoring him, Claire turned her attention to the large screen in front of her which displayed all areas of the park, with live images of visitors and assets alike. "Why are the west plains closed?"
"Another Pachy roaming outside his zone, but he's fully sedated and ready for relocation." Vivian explained quickly.
"Security said the invisible fences were a no fail, that is the second time this month." Claire usually smooth voice was laced with irritation as she pointed an accusing finger towards the video feed of the Pachycephalosaurus lying unconscious on the ground, surrounded by guards and veterinarians alike.
"Well the Pachy's short out their implants when they butt heads…" Vivian's attempt to explain the situation was futile, and Claire merely cut her sentence short.
"How much longer until they get it out of there?"
"He just got five miligrams of carfentanil…"
"Yes he's very stoned." Lowery added sarcastically. "So why don't we show a little sympathy?" Claire rolled her eyes and frowned at Lowery for what felt like the millionth time since she'd known him. "I mean you do understand that these are actual animals right?"
"Clean up your work space." Claire responded cooly. "It's chaotic."
Lowery turned to look at the dinosaur figurines the littered his desk, organized neatly now into herds by Ellis. He smiled at the small velociraptor figurine that stood apart from all the others, that one was special. It had been a gift.
"Anyway, I'm going to meet Masrani. Keep me updated on the Pac…Pach…whatever." Claire took another sip of her coffee before turning and walking out of the room, her heels clicking quietly against the hard floor as she walked. Vivian nodded as she left before turning towards Lowery and leaning towards him ever so slightly.
"Yet." She said knowingly.
"What?" Lowery asked, a look of genuine confusion flourishing upon his features.
"You and Ellis aren't dating yet." Lowery blushed and Vivian smiled, turning back towards her computer screen and punching in a few keys, bringing up the Velociraptor paddock just in time to catch Owen Grady finish up the drill with the raptors.
Claire's journey to Paddock Eleven was turbulent to say the least. Simon Masrani's skills as a helicopter pilot left a lot to be desired. Although they made it to Paddock Eleven in once piece, his co-pilot and instructor was reunited with whatever it was he'd had for breakfast that morning the moment the craft touched down on solid ground.
"Is he okay?" Claire called out to him. "Are you okay?"
"Oh he's just being dramatic." Simon Masrani brushed off the man's illness with a wave of his hand, walking towards the incredible feat of engineering that was the Indominus Rex's home. Sounds of machinery and the shouts of workmen filled the air, and Masrani frowned; he'd thought everything would have been finished by now. "Are you still building?"
"We planned to open in May but Miss Grant insisted we built the walls up higher. It's bigger than we expected."
"Ellis has been here?" Masrani asked, stopping where he was to get a good look at the structure. Work men and women littered the entire area, some soldering metal together, others pouring over schematics, making notes here and there. The CEO hadn't seen Ellis Grant since the day he dropped her off on his island, but he had read each and every one of her reports, and had made a conscious effort to keep a keen eye on the young girl. Claire glanced over her shoulder towards her superior and nodded slowly in answer to his question.
"Yes we got her in for behavioural analysis, and well…she had some containment suggestions." Masrani nodded, a beaming smile lighting up his weathered features.
"Excellent, very good. Well if it must be bigger then make it bigger. Spare no expense."
He followed after Claire as she walked towards the Paddock, following her up the metal staircase to the small control room that Ellis had visited a week previous. Claire hadn't returned since that afternoon with Ellis and Lowery and faltered for a moment at the door, the last time she'd been in that room a genetically modified prehistoric killing machine had done its very best to try to eat her, and so to say she was a little apprehensive about seeing the Indominus again was an understatement. Levelling out her breathing she closed her eyes momentarily before punching in the key code and pushing open the door, falling back into her business woman role effortlessly. "We hit a few speedbumps early on." She explained as she stepped into the room, Masrani followed diligently after her, heading straight towards the large viewing window which hadn't yet been repaired and still sported a rather impressive looking crack in the glass.
It didn't take Simon Masrani long to notice the crack in the glass, and though he feigned indifference he couldn't help but be a little worried. The dinosaur itself was truly a spectacle, something that wouldn't only strike fear into the hearts of the children that saw it, but the parents that stood alongside them as well. The Indominus Rex was a breath-taking specimen and the dinosaur loving child inside of Simon Masrani was practically doing backflips in excitement, the CEO in him was also feeling pretty smug too – they were going to make a fortune with this thing. Nevertheless security breaches were quite clearly still an issue and so he turned to Claire with a questioning look. "So…the paddock is quite safe then?"
"We have some of the best structural engineers in the world." She assured him, once again the words tumbling from her lips in an almost too perfect manner, yet another rehearsed line that had no doubt been said to countless others.
"Yeah, so did Hammond." Claire offered him a look but otherwise remained silent, choosing instead to occupy herself with one of the tablets that was mounted near to the viewing window – bringing up statistics and other analysis results. "There's an American navy man here…" Masrani continued. "Part of a research programme one of my companies is running, the same as Ellis Grant…his name is Owen Grady."
Claire resisted the urge to sigh and roll his eyes, instead she simply nodded. "I know who he is."
"Their animals often try to escape, they're smart. Owen and Ellis have to be smarter."
"Yeah well they think they're smarter." Claire muttered irritably under her breath, this time rolling her cerulean orbs and folding her arms across her chest.
Masrani ignored her comment and carried on, "I want you to bring them both back in, let them inspect the paddock."
"Grant is a behavioural specialist."
"Well maybe between them they see something we can't." Claire sighed heavily but otherwise agreed to Masrani's suggestion. Heading straight for where she knew Owen and Ellis would be the minute she was clear of Simon Masrani.
On a remote part of the island, completely off limits to visitors was a small collection of rustic looking bungalows, each one kitted out to its inhabitant's needs and preferences. It was here, in what Ellis had come to call 'The Village', that Owen Grady and Ellis Grant stood sipping quietly from their glass beer bottles, chatting to one another without a care in the world.
"Okay next letter…M." Ellis announced, taking another swig of beer before tipping the bottle towards Owen ever so slightly. "You go first." It was a game they'd invented a few months into knowing one another, one of them would chose a letter and then between them they had to name as many dinosaurs whose name began with that letter as they could, whoever couldn't think of one – lost the round.
"Easy, Mosasaurus!" Owen shot back smugly, calling out over his shoulder towards Ellis before going back to tinkering with his old motorcycle. Whilst Ellis loved her vintage jeep, this piece of machinery was Owen Grady's baby and he prided himself on his ability to look after and maintain it.
"Montanoceratops." Ellis replied after a brief moments thought. A look of confusion flourished upon Owen's handsome features and he turned himself fully to face her, he looked at her carefully watching the way she was sat so carelessly on the wooden steps of the bungalow before pointing a finger at her.
"Cheat, that's not a thing."
"Erm, excuse me? Yes it is." Ellis feigned offence. "The Montanoceratops happens to be my favourite dinosaur thank you very much. It was the first skeleton I saw as a kid."
Owen released an exasperated sigh and took a swig of his beer, relishing in the way the ice cold beverage immediately cooled him down in the hot Costa Rican sun. "You know what, playing this game against a palaeontologist just isn't fun."
Ellis was about to laugh when the brand new silver Mercedes pulled up, Claire Dearing behind the wheel. "Oh what do they want now?" Ellis muttered, placing her beer bottle down and standing up as Claire stepped out of the car. A small smirk caused the corners of Ellis' lips to curve upwards as she watched the redhead check her reflection in the blacked out window of the car before finally making her way towards the two handlers.
"Mr Grady, Miss Grant." Claire greeted politely, stopping somewhere between Ellis on the steps and Owen crouched down by his motorcycle. "I need you to come take a look at something."
"Why you calling me Mr Grady?" Owen questioned and Ellis laughed quietly, earning herself a stern glance from Claire who released a long breath before speaking again.
"Owen." Inside the bungalow the radio blasted the sounds of some sort of sporting match, and Ellis and Owen exchanged a quick glance. Owen raised his eyebrows at his colleague and Ellis merely shrugged in response, taking another swig of her beer before redirecting her attention to Claire once more. "If you're not too busy." Claire added, a hint of irritation lacing her otherwise honeyed tenors.
"I mean I don't know…we're pretty busy." Owen teased.
"We have an attraction." Claire stated simply causing Owen to almost spit out the mouthful of beer he'd just taken a sip of.
"That's not what you said the last time I saw ya." He replied, standing from his crouched position by the bike. Ellis scoffed into the back of her hand but quickly composed herself, she'd heard all about Claire and Owen's terrible date, in fact she lived to tease Owen relentlessly about it.
"I'm talking about the dinosaurs…Mr Grady."
"O-wen."
"A new species we've made." This grabbed Ellis' attention and she jumped down off the steps towards Claire, her chocolate orbs flickering towards Owen to see how he'd react.
"You just went and made a new dinosaur?" He asked disbelievingly. Claire glanced from him to Ellis before replying.
"Well…yes, didn't Ellis tell you?"
"Elle? You knew about this?"
"I was sworn to secrecy!" Ellis jumped to her own defence, sending a glare in Claire's direction – it was the red head who had warned Ellis not to tell a soul after all.
A smirk danced upon Claire's pointed features and she continued. "Anyway, the exhibit opens in three weeks and Mr Masrani wanted me to consult with you."
Any irritation Owen had felt about being left out of the loop was short lived and he was almost immediately back to his charming, if not a little skeezy self. "You want to consult here, or in my bungalow? Ellis can watch."
"That's not funny." Claire shook her head.
"It's a little funny." Ellis added with a laugh.
Claire sighed heavily, she'd come here with a job to do, a job that was being put off by these two imbeciles that acted even more like children when they were together than they did apart. "We'd like you to assess the paddock for vulnerabilities."
"Why us?" Ellis questioned, one shaped eyebrow rising ever so slightly.
"I guess Mr Masrani thinks that since you're able to control the raptors…"
"See it's all about control with you people, we don't control the raptors it's a relationship." Owen explained, re-emerging from the bungalow having disappeared inside to retrieve the specific wrench he needed for the bike. "It's based on mutual respect…that's why you and I never had a second date."
"Ooooh there it is." Ellis laughed, her mouth agape. She leant back against the railings of the wooden structure and watched the scene unfold excitedly.
"Excuse me I never wanted a second date!" Claire defended herself, her tone a mixture of irritation and offense.
"What kind of diet doesn't allow tequila?" Owen challenged and Claire rolled her blue eyes.
"All of them actually, and what kind of a man goes on a date when he is clearly involved with another woman?" Ellis coughed loudly, having practically choked on the liquid she'd just taken a sip of. She turned to face Owen with a frown – she didn't particularly like Claire but she was all for girl power and leading her on didn't fly with Ellis.
"What the hell Owen, who?" She demanded and frowned when Owen merely stared back at her, a blank expression on his face. Claire sighed at the top of the stairs, folding her arms across her chest and glaring at Ellis. "Wait, do you mean me?" Ellis questioned, a laugh falling from her blossom pink lips almost immediately after her words. "Oh man, wow…no…absolutely not, not even if the world was ending."
"Thank you." Owen muttered and Ellis offered him a grin in response.
"I'm uh...gonna go change my shirt, you guys…continue you this." Ellis grinned, dashing inside the bungalow before she could cause any further damage.
"Okay, okay. Can we just focus on the asset please." Claire muttered, somewhat perplexed as to how the three of them had gotten so unbelievably off topic.
"The asset?" Owen questioned incredulously, he'd always hated the way in which the staff at Jurassic World talked about the animals here – like they were products, rather than living breathing dinosaurs. He was about to roll into a speech about the animals, and how they themselves didn't know that they were cooked up in a lab, but was interrupted by Ellis who bounded out of the bungalow, now wearing a fresh plaid shirt.
"Ready to go?" She asked "Or are you two still having a lovers quarrel?"
"I thought you were going to change your shirt?" Claire muttered glancing sideways towards Ellis who simply raised an eyebrow.
"Oh she did." Owen laughed. "You see Ellis lives her life in various shades of plaid." She shoved him hard in the arm before heading towards the car Claire had arrived in.
"Whatever, I call shotgun."
A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for over 100 follows/favourites guys really that is so amazing and I am honestly a little blown away by it! Here's chapter eight, I'm sorry that there is so much talking but oh well what can you do. Action starts in chapter 9 so hang tight. If you wanna read/see more head over to my insatiable blog (jurassicinsatiable) or if you're looking for more great JW fics to read can I suggest heading to the raptor squad tumblr (the-raptor-squad-fanfictions) where there are so many great stories posted! As usual leave a review if you want to/have the time. Much loveeee x
